Memento [MA]

Leonard Shelby dresses in a designer suit, drives an impressive car, and lives in cheap anonymous motels, with his only driving force being the desire to hunt down and take revenge on the man who raped and murdered his wife. But Leonard faces a great difficulty in locating his wife’s killer as he suffers from a rare and untreatable form of memory loss, which he became afflicted with on that fateful night. 

HELLS YEAH! AN ORIGINAL THRILLER! Nowadays thrillers suck you with spine-tingling psychoanalytical drama, but they all tend to have some sort of closure and you finish the film with an understanding of what everything was about. The only other thriller that makes it into the same league as Memento is Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio: a brilliant thriller that kept you guessing and thinking… even after the credits started to roll. 

Leonard Shelby is an ex insurance-investigator who dresses in a designer suit, drives an impressive car, and lives in cheap anonymous motels, with his only driving force being the desire to hunt down and take revenge upon the man who raped and murdered his wife. But Leonard faces a great difficulty in locating his wife’s killer as he suffers from a form of memory loss: he can remember everything before and including the incident, but can make no new memories. Unable to remember anything from fifteen minutes ago, Leonard’s progress in finding the man goes slowly as, most of the time, he cannot remember where he’s been, where he is, or why he’s there. 

What makes Memento so incredible is the way that it is filmed. The movie is very jagged and actually progresses backwards, beginning with the final climax (which is actually the result of a whole other endeavour) and ending with the beginning of this endeavour. You really do need to be in an acute state of mind in order to get the gist of the thing. It’s bloody brilliant! 

Memento is also another wonderful example of that delightful little devil known as plot misdirection. Like American Psycho, and Black Swan, the film follows the quest of Leonard, the hero, but then, only at the very end are we thrust into reality by becoming aware that his facts are not necessarily the facts. And even when it’s all over, you’re still staring at the screen and coming to your own conclusion. This, right here, is what thrillers are meant to be. They’re meant to lead you down one road and into a whole world and then completely shatter your perception of what is real and what is not. WHAT A FANTASTIC GENRE! 

Guy Pearce stars as Leonard and he was just gorgeous. It’s actors like Guy Pearce that make me proud to be Australian. See, we can churn out talent! Guy delivered a performance that was charming, smug, determined, nervy, and boldly clueless. When you think about people being completely unaware of what’s going on, they tend to get shy and keep to themselves. Although for a fair amount of time, the hero did keep to himself, when he was put in a situation where he was required to speak or make a judgment, he answered boldly and completely unembarrassed that he did not know what was going on. Guy’s performance was absolutely wonderful. 

Starring Carrie-Anna Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Jr. Callum Keith Rennie, Harriet Sansom Harris, Larry Holden, and Stephen Tobolowsky, Memento is an amazing movie filled with violence, murder, drama, thrills, humour, and many sharp twists of the plot. Earning its place in The Book, IT’S ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!